“The writer does a grave disservice by repeatedly conflating a national sales tax and a VAT, or Value-Added Tax.”
What’s the difference? NST is visible, VAT is invisible, but both tax consumption. Politically, it’s safer to have an NST, since every increase will be more transparent to voters and hence more likely to be opposed. Any “prebate” provided to low income households to offset the burden of an NST can as easily be adopted under a VAT as well. So in terms of who pays what, a 5% NST is indistinguishable from a 5% VAT.
Hidden taxes are intrinsically bad. That’s the difference. A very important difference.